No More Chances For Tina Olison

October 08, 1999

If there were a statute of limitations on motherhood, Tina Olison's time would be up.

Last March, after a protracted court battle, she got what she said she wanted: custody of her youngest son, a 3-year-old known as Baby T. But in the months since, she has not acted as if she really wants him.

Circuit Court Judge Judith Brawka ruled that Baby T should be given over to Olison's sole care after a 12-month transition period that would include drug tests for Olison, family counseling and increasingly frequent visits between mother and child.

But Olison has repeatedly balked at counseling, and visitation has been sporadic at best.

This was to be Olison's chance to show both her desire and her ability to raise a family (she also is seeking custody of Baby T's 8-year-old brother), and she has blown it. During a state-mandated hearing last month, it became clear that no substantial progress had been made.

Olison's excuses for her lack of cooperation ranged from an admitted distrust of white social workers and counselors to difficulty in juggling both a full-time job and a child-visitation schedule. Her lawyer also suggested that Baby T's politically well-connected foster parents, Illinois Appellate Judge Anne Burke and Ald. Edward Burke (14th), had made visitation difficult.

But this case, ultimately, is not about race or politics or Tina Olison's schedule. It is about a child and what would be best for him.

Somewhere along the way, Olison seems to have lost sight of that. And if she thinks it's hard to juggle her schedule so she can see her son once or twice a week, one shudders to think how she would handle him day in and day out for the next 15 or more years.

Baby T, who was born with cocaine in his system, has been in the Burkes' care since he was 8 days old. They are, in all but biology, his parents. They have fed him, clothed him, cared for his special needs and loved him.

During that time, Tina Olison has kicked her drug habit, gotten a job and settled into her own apartment, and she is to be commended for those successes. What she has not successfully done is that which was required of her in order to be a parent to her child.

Judge Brawka has the option of making the Burkes the long-term guardians of this toddler who knows them and loves them as his parents. That is what she should do.

Tina Olison does not deserve another six months to decide whether to cooperate with the court's orders. But Baby T, now going on age 4, does deserve a stable, secure and loving home--and he's got one now.